(CNN) -- Blaming the busy hurricane season, NASA announced Friday that it will delay the space shuttle's return to space from March or April to a launch in May or July.

The mission will be the first for the shuttle since the February 2003 Columbia disaster.

Four Hurricanes passed through the southeastern United States in August and September, closing Florida's Kennedy Space Center for nine days and damaging some facilities. No spacecraft or hardware was damaged by the storms, NASA said.

Hurricane Ivan caused shorter closures at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi; the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; and the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where external fuel tanks for the shuttle are prepared.

In addition, the space agency said that "many NASA workers and contractors are still coping with damage to their homes and other impacts on their families."